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New housing minister appointed as Sharma moves on
A new housing minister has been appointed, as Alok Sharma is shuffled out of his role just seven months after taking up the job.
Dominic Raab is the new housing minister, moving over from the Ministry of Justice where he had been a junior minister since 2015.
Mr Sharma will now take up a minister for employment role in the Department for Work and Pensions.
Mr Sharma was leading on the government’s Social Housing Green Paper, including a roadshow around the country to meet social housing tenants.
In other Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government appointments Rishi Sunak has been appointed a junior minister to replace Marcus Jones, who had responsibility for homelessness and was leading on the government’s plans for supported housing funding.
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On Twitter, David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said he was “disappointed” to see Mr Sharma leave.
He said: “I admit to being disappointed that Alok Sharma has been moved from housing. He’s been impressive in meeting tenants and engaging with the sector. And less than seven months is a short time even in the notoriously short-lived world of housing ministers.”
In a second tweet, he added: “Welcome to Dominic Raab as housing minister. We at [the NHF] look forward to working with you. But please, PM, give him enough time to do the job properly. Housing desperately needs some continuity. We have a broken housing market to fix.”
It is not yet clear what will become of Mr Sharma’s work travelling the country to meet tenants, which has taken up much of his seven months as housing minister.
He was said to be gathering evidence to write the government’s much-vaunted Social Housing Green Paper, launched in the aftermath of the Grenfell disaster. But he leaves without having implemented the work or published any of his findings.
Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “We congratulate Dominic Raab on becoming the new housing minister and we look forward to working with him. We hope that the very valuable work Alok Sharma has been doing, including his work travelling around the country to consult with tenants, continues. Given the very serious housing challenges our nation faces we also now hope for continuity in this crucial role.”
On housing Mr Raab has been vocal against building on the green belt. In February last year he boasted that he was one of the MPs to lobby the government against Green Belt building as it developed the Housing White Paper.
He said: “I fought very hard in 2011 and 2012 to retain existing green belt protections, and see off attempts to dilute them. I have been similarly active and engaged in relation to the new proposals which have now been set out in the government’s housing white paper, published on February 7.
“In my view, as we strive to build more affordable housing, every effort must be made to avoid building on green belt, and I hope this is a shared objective across national and local government.”
He has also written extensively against Green Belt development on his blog, and in 2009 described ’open door immigration’ as the ’first’ cause of the housing crisis.
Mr Raab served as a junior minister in the Ministry of Justice since 2015.
In that time he proposed amendments to the Immigration Bill which would have seen prisoners with sentences of longer than a year deported. He also led debates against a European Court of Justice decision giving at least some prisoners the right to vote.
He was a leading campaigner for Brexit in the referendum, and has regularly spoken out about so-called positive discrimination having a negative impact on men.
He also penned a report for think tank the Centre for Policy Studies calling for a reduction to the "burden of employment regulation", which sought to reduce the influence of trade unions and workers’ rights. The proposals involved no-fault dismissal for "underperforming" staff and abolishing working time regulations.
Reaction to the appointment on Twitter
I’m going to start referring to housing ministers by number. They don’t stay in post long enough for you to remember all their names. You’d never guess you had a housing crisis would you? We need consistency please. #ukhousing
— Aileen Evans (@Bushbell)I’m going to start referring to housing ministers by number. They don’t stay in post long enough for you to remember all their names. You’d never guess you had a housing crisis would you? We need consistency please. #ukhousing
— Aileen Evans (@Bushbell) January 9, 2018
15 different Housing Ministers in the last 17 years. Good to see that a consistent approach of constant change is being adopted for something as long term as housing. #HousingCrisis #reshuffle #ukhousing t.co/lgMyIgTybj
— Dale Armstrong (@Armstrong_Dale)15 different Housing Ministers in the last 17 years. Good to see that a consistent approach of constant change is being adopted for something as long term as housing. #HousingCrisis #reshuffle #ukhousing https://t.co/lgMyIgTybj
— Dale Armstrong (@Armstrong_Dale) January 9, 2018
Housing Ministers of the 21st Century #ukhousing pic.twitter.com/S8T1rcjdyx
— Richard Sansom (@RichardSansom_)Housing Ministers of the 21st Century #ukhousing pic.twitter.com/S8T1rcjdyx
— Richard Sansom (@RichardSansom_) January 9, 2018
Will you be continuing with the housing roadshow pioneered by @AlokSharma_RDG, meeting residents in preparation for the green paper? #ukhousing
— Rob Gershon (@Simplicitly)Will you be continuing with the housing roadshow pioneered by @AlokSharma_RDG, meeting residents in preparation for the green paper? #ukhousing
— Rob Gershon (@Simplicitly) January 9, 2018
